Semmes residents meet to discuss upcoming incorporation

View full sizeVictor Calhoun/Press-RegisterOne thing that won't change when Semmes officially becomes a city on Sunday, May 1, 2011, is that fire protection will continue to be provided by the Semmes Volunteer Fire Department. "Weâre able to provide you with adequate services now," said Semmes VFD Chief Terry Saxton during a public meeting Tuesday, April 26, 2011 at Mary G. Montgomery High School.. "Come May 1, weâre not going to miss a beat." The fire department is pictured Tuesday, March 15, 2011.

SEMMES, Alabama -- With just days left until Semmes becomes the newest incorporated municipality in Mobile County, questions about the transition arose at a Tuesday night meeting.

What residents discovered at the meeting, held at Mary G. Montgomery High School, is that few things will immediately change.

Area residents overwhelmingly supported incorporation in August, voting to make Semmes the 11th municipality in Mobile County.

On Sunday, Mobile County Probate Judge Don Davis will issue the official incorporation. After that, Davis will set a date for the election of the city’s mayor and five-member at-large council.

The new city will include a 1½-mile police and fire jurisdiction and a 5-mile planning jurisdiction.

"We’re able to provide you with adequate services now," said Semmes Volunteer Fire Department Chief Terry Saxton. "Come May 1, we’re not going to miss a beat."

The fire department will continue to service the same area it has since it was established in 1992, Saxton said. And until a police department is formed, the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office will patrol the area and respond to crime.

Sheriff Sam Cochran said Semmes is afforded the same protection as any other unincorporated area in the county -- once a police entity is in place, it can "contract with the Sheriff’s Office for any services it wants to continue down the road," he said.

Changes are coming to how residents will submit their construction and permit applications, said Connie Hudson, the District 2 commissioner on the Mobile County Commission.

Planning applications for construction within the city limits of Semmes must await approval from the city’s yet-to-be-formed planning commission, she said. The applications were previously submitted to the County Commission.

The County Commission will continue to accept planning applications for subdivisions and commercial site plans that fall outside of the new city limits of Semmes, Hudson said.

"Everybody in Semmes was ready for this," Judy Hale, a member of the Incorporate Semmes Committee that spurred annexation, said at the meeting.

The incorporation of Semmes will culminate more than two years of work to create a new government in northwest Mobile County, partly in an attempt to stave off annexation from Mobile.

Semmes residents faced a 2.5-cent sales tax increase and oversight by Mobile’s Planning Commission when they came under the Mobile police jurisdiction, prompting residents to organize the incorporation effort.

The new town will have a population of about 2,800 people and cover a little more than 2,100 acres.